Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Sales Leakage

Sat in on an interesting presentation by Susan Odam (sp?) from the University of Illinois Extension office.  One of the striking figures she presented from research she had done is that demand for retail products in the sixteen county southern Illinois region totals about $2.5 billion per year.   The supply, however, only totals $2.246 billion, meaning that people have to shop outside the region for about $254 million per year.  This "sales leakage",  as she called it, reflects unsatisfied demand for goods within our region.  the problem is, of course, what goods is there more demand than supply for?

Interestingly, her research showed demand for food totaling $334 million, while supply totaled $381 million.  This means the region produces more food, cumulatively than residents can consume, meaning it either gets sold outside the region or disposed of by some other method.

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